Biomorphological Characterization of Brazilian Capsicum Chinense Jacq. Germplasm

Abstract

Loss of biodiversity and ecosystem degradation become major concerns worldwide, making the conservation process an important strategy for maintaining biodiversity. Capsicum chinense Jacq. is the most Brazilian species of the genus, with representatives in different biomes. Anthropic pressure, such as burns, real estate speculation, and changing cultivation habit has led to risks of genetic erosion. Conservation and characterization of conserved accessions are paramount to ensure genetic diversity, useful for the bioeconomy and for genetic improvement. We report the characterization of 55 C. chinense accessions from four different regions of Brazil and one accession from Peru. The accessions were characterized based on 37 morpho-agronomic variables, Inter Simple Sequence Repeats—ISSR and Simple Sequence Repeat—SSR. Qualitative descriptors were analyzed using a descriptive statistical, while the quantitative descriptors were analyzed via F test and significant differences in mean values were separated using Scott-Knott test. The relative contribution of each quantitative trait was determined. A correlation between morphological and molecular distances was calculated. Color of ripe fruit and fruit shape had the largest number of observed classes. Six distinct groups and the joint analysis presented an entanglement rate of 0.58, evidencing the divergence of accessions between the groups of both dendrograms. Bayesian analysis allowed the distinction of two clusters for SSR. A significant variability was observed among accession with potential to integrate several breeding programs.

A step towards Balkan Capsicum annuum L. core collection: Phenotypic and biochemical characterization of 180 accessions for agronomic, fruit quality, and virus resistance traits

“…Our findings are in agreement with other studies [31,52]; however, the year effects were not significant in Occhiuto et al [31]. The diversity observed through a broad range of variability measured for 24 agro-morphological (S1 Fig), four yield components (Fig 3), and four fruit quality traits (Fig 4) revealed appreciable biomorphological variation in the studied collection, which is in concurrence with previous studies using agronomic [45,50], fruit morphology [53], and fruit quality [51,54] traits to characterize the pepper germplasm. Variability found in traits associated with fruit shape, compositional quality, and yield components might be useful for broader acceptability of pepper collection for cultivation [49][50], consumer preference [55][56], use in local cuisine [51], processing [57], packaging [58], and export.…”

“…PCA was employed to identify the divergence among accessions as a measure of phenotypic and fruit compositional variability, and to investigate the relative contribution of different biomorphological characters to the total diversity [19,45]. The PCA results further supported the presence of biomorphological diversity and variability recorded in ANOVA.…”

“…Clusters 4 and 6 were exceptions to this likely because the measured traits have close relatedness and might have subtle differences only [33,58]. Distinct clusters were not established by the inclusion of accessions collected from the similar growing environments that is indicative of unhindered seed exchange across the Balkan region, as observed previously in a Brazilian Capsicum collection [45,64]. Hierarchical clustering also elaborated on the role of PLOS ONE plant architectural, fruit shape, size, form, color, and maturity traits in the assessment of plant and fruit diversity and varietal typification as previously reported by morphometric and colorimetric descriptors of TA [33,58,65].…”

“…Agro-morphological field data and fruit compositional quality data were analyzed using SAS, and R programs. The manuscript structure was inspired by previous work of biomorphological pepper diversity [45], bean phenotypic collection [19], and tomato fruit diversity [46].…”

Changes in Capsiate Content in Four Chili Pepper Genotypes (Capsicum spp.) at Different Ripening Stages

“…Its unique aroma, pungency and color are its most attractive properties and a quality reference for consumers. Brazil is considered a center of diversity for some Capsicum species (domesticated and wild) [29]. However, 'Habanero' pepper holds an enormous social and commercial relevance in other American countries, such as Mexico.…”